Fire-box.



R.- E. JACKSON 61 F. E. BELL.

FIRE 80X.

APILICATION man JUNE 16. m4.

mm mfiu Patented. Apr. 113, mm.

gm'uemtoz wibneweo C3 THE NORRIS PETERS 60 PHOTO'LITHO" WASHINGTON. D, Cv

@Tlifi PATIWT ROBERT E. JACKSON, OF VICTORIA, AND FRANK E. BELL, OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA.

FIRE-BOX.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, ROBERT E. JACKSON and FRANK E. BELL, citizens of the United States, residing at Victoria, in the county of Lunenburg, and Norfolk, in the county of Norfolk, respectively, both in the State of Virginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fire-Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

Our present invention pertains to fire boxes and more particularly to locomotive fire boxes; and it contemplates the provision of means for utilizing fluid under pressure, preferably steam, to transfer cinders received from the space in front of the arch in the fire box to a suitable point of discharge.

The invention also contemplates the transfor or movement of the cinders to the ash pan of a locomotive, and this in such manner that when the transfer of cinders by fluid under pressure is stopped the cinderreceiver will be automatically cut-off from the ash pan.

Other advantageous features of the invention will be fully understood from the following description and claims when the same are read in connection with the drawings, accompanying and forming part of this specification, in which the figure is a longitudinal vertical section of so much of a locomotive as is necessary to illustrate the present and preferred embodiment of our invention.

In furtherance of our invention a cinder receiver 1 is provided below and in com munication with the space 2 in front of the arch 3 of the locomotive fire box, and to the lower end of said receiver which is preferably in the form of a hopper as shown, is connected one arm of a T-coupling 4. The opposite or lower arm of said T-coupling is preferably, though not necessarily, plugged, as indicated by 5, and the third arm thereof is connected through a conduit 6 with the ash pan 7 of the locomotive. The conduit 6 is provided at an intermediate point in its length with a valve casing 8, and in said casing is arranged a rectilinearly-movable gate valve 9. The stem of said valve extends into a cylinder 10 and is provided in the cylinder with a piston 11, back of which is arranged a coiled spring 12.

Connected at 13 or at any other suitable point with the steam generator or boiler of the locomotive is a steam pipe 14, having a Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 13, 19I5. Serial no. 845,380.

valve 15, located in the locomotive cab or at some other suitable point within convenient reach of the engineer. The said pipe 14 is provided with a branch 16 that leads into the T-coupling t, and a branch 17 that Is connected with the cylinder 10 at the opposite side of the piston 11, with reference to the spring 12.

In practice the spring 12 serves when the locomotive is working or when it is not desired to remove cinders from the cinderreceiver 1 to maintain the valve 9 in a closed position, this in order to prevent the draft through the fines of the locomotive from having any efiect on the cinders deposited in the hopper-like receiver 1. When, however, it is desired to transfer cinders from the hopper to the ash pan 7 the engineer has only to open the valve 15 when the steam acting against the piston 11 will first open and hold the valve 9 open against the action of the spring 12 and will then by acting directly against the cinders force the same through the conduit 6 to the ash pan 7 or to any other desired point of discharge; our invention, as before suggested, not being restricted to the discharge of the displaced cinders into the ash pan.

Immediately on the closing of the valve 15 the spring 12 will operate to close the gate valve 9, and to yieldingly hold the same in closed position for the purpose described.

It will be gathered from the foregoing that in order to discharge the cinder receiver of collected cinders, it is unnecessary for the engineer to leave the locomotive cab or to make any adjustments other than to open the valve 15. This will be appreciated as an important advantage when compared with those constructions in which the cinder receiver is provided with a gate or door which must be opened when the receiver is to be discharged of collected cinders.

Having described our invention, what we claim and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is:

1. The combination of a fire-box having an arch and a cinder-receiver in front of said arch, an ash pan, a cinder conduit connected with and arranged between the cinder-receiver and the ash pan, a rectilinearly-movable gate-valve normally intersecting and closing the cinder conduit, a piston cylinder, a piston in said cylinder and connected with said valve, a spring backing said piston, asource of fluid-pressure supply, a valved conduit leading therefrom, and

conduits communicating with said valved conduit and connected with the cinder conduit and the piston cylinder, respectively.

2. The combination of a fire box having.

an arch and a cinder-receiver in front of said arch, an ash pan, a cinder conduiti-ntermediate the cinder-receiver and the ash pan, a valve normally held under yielding pressure in position to close said cinder conduit, and fiuld-pressure means for synf chronously opening the valve and displacingcinders in the cinder conduit.

1 3. The combination of a fire box having an arch and a cinder-receiver in front of said arch, a cinder conduit leading from the cinder-receiver, a valve normally held under Gopiesof this patent may be obtained for ing witnesses.

ROBERT E. JACKSON. FRANK E. BELL.

Witnesses:

WILLIAM H. FALLoN, MAE D. YARD.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

